St. Landry democrat., 1887-10-01

lI#I press his wants or his SEN
II timents, or to recount his
experiences. Under these
depressing circumstances, in attempting
TO describe something that he had seen, for
instance, it was his ingenious plan to make
a sound similar to that produced by the
object which he wished to bring to his
hearers mind; in this fashion words
were gradually built up. This way of
accounting for the origin Of language is
called the "onomotopoetic' theory.
The MeXicans, who were so mer-
cilessly slaughtered by Cortes, had
an elaborate system Of picturewrit-
ing When the Spaniards began their
| conquest, it was found fully equal
to the demands upon it, for the purpose
of giving information to the capital, in
the interior, of the arrival and terrible
deeds of the strangers, their curious cos
tunes and those marvellous animals, the
horses, which many of them bestrode.
| The MeXicans covered the walls of their
temples and other public buildings with
tllS "lltluS, luuS dt oiCc oludulGItiHS
them with various devices in bright col
ors, and making them the repositories of
the history of their country and the great
achievements of their rulers. Many of
these old temple walls have been un-
earthed in modern times and scholars
have learned to read the inscriptions on
them quite as we'll as the people for
whom they were written. We might
borrow suggestion from this practice.
The walls of many of our public build
ings would be improved by frescoing
them, after the manner of the circle
around the dome of the Capitol at Wash
ington, with the pictures of great events
in the history of our country; for in
stance, the landing of the Pilgrims, the
resignation of Washington's commission
and the laying of the cornerstone of the
pedestal for Bartholdis statue.
In the initial cut is shown a specimen of
picture-writing by North American
Indian, taken from one of Schoolcrafts
works The author named was travel
ing along the shores of Lake Superior
when the picture was found, and this is
the story he tells us about it I: "When
We were preparing to leave camp small
strip of birch bark was observed ele-
waited on the top of split sapling, some
eight or ten feet high. One end of this
pole was thrust firmly into the ground,
leaning in the direction we were to go.
On going up to this object it was found,
with the aid of an interpreter, to be a
symbolic record of the circumstance of
our crossing this summit and of the
nights encampment at this spot. Each
person was appropriately depicted, dis
tinguishing the soldiers from the officer
in command, and the latter from the
citizens of the party"
The following is the explanation of
this picture: Figure 1 represents the
officer in command of the party of United
States troops; he is drawn with sword,
to denote his official rank. Figure de-
notes the person who officiated as secre-
tary; he is represented as holding a
book, the Indians having understood
him to be an attorney. Figure 3 denotes
the geologist and mineralogist of the
party; he is drawn with hammer. Fig
ure 6 is the interpreter; the other two
figures of this group represent attaches.
The group of figures marked represent
eight infantry soldiers, each of whom, as
shown by group 10, was armed with
musket; and figure Is indicates that
they had a separate fire, and constituted
a separate mess. Figures and s are the
two Chippewa guides, the principal of
whom was called Chances, or Pouncing
Hawk. They also appear to have had
fire to themselves. They are the only
human figures depicted without the hat,
which was the characteristic seized upon
by Indians, and generally employed to
distinguish the white from the red race.
Figures II and 12 represent the prairie
hen and the green tortoise, which con-
stituted the result of the preceding days
chase and which were eaten at the en-
campment. Figure IA is the fire of the
officers mess. Figure Is is Hawks sig
nature, or mark The entire record was
so clearly drawn, according to fixed rules
of the Indian tribe, that full intelligence
would be communicated thereby to any
VI lhCIl pOopAO WIZ AAiSAo SuoASO w
wander that way.
Many tribes of the North American
Indians had passed beyond the primi-
tive stage of mere picture-writing, and
acquired the art of conveying ideas by
means of written symbols, and their
symbol in writing, though by no means
SO complex as that of the early Mexi-
cans, was yet full of ingenious devices;
for instance, waving line, to denote
wind or air in motion; and we may OBJ
serve, in passing, that such line is
used with us in ornamentation to indi-
cate motion or life This waving line,
drawn from the ear of figure, implies
hearing or attention; to double it, by
embracing both ears, means full or per-
feet attention and shows the devotion
Of the listener; circle around the mid
die of the body denotes that the party
whom the figure represents has plenty to
eat; If the party is drawn sitting down,
that denotes rest A line about the
shoulders denotes pack, and implies